Touchdown in Paradiso, continuing their iconic sound for the first time on 12 inches. Disco Mortale (aka Daniel Monaco) and Sauvage World team up for a world of Italo, EBM & New Beat. Pulsating arpeggios, vintage drums and a killer dark energy backed up with remixes from Curses and Freudenthal, welcome to Destroy Inc.
Dick Essilfie-Bondzie was all ready for his 90th birthday party when the Covid pandemic hit. The legendary producer, businessman and founder of Ghana’s mighty Essiebons label had invited all his family and friends to the event and it was the disappointment at having to postpone. That prompted Analog Africa founder Samy Ben Redjeb to propose a new compilation celebrating his contributions to the world of West African music. Essiebons Special features a selection of obscure workouts from some of the label’s heaviest hitters, including a 12-page booklet. But in the course of digitizing his vast archive of master tapes, Essilfie-Bondzie found a number of Afrobeat and Instrumental masterpieces tracks from the label’s mid-70s golden age that, for one reason or another, had never been released. Those songs are included here for the first time. Sadly Essilfie-Bondzie passed away before the compilation was finished. But his legacy lives on in the extraordinary music that he gave to the world in his lifetime.
Arp Frique’s second album on Colorful World, exploring the globe via a concoction of sounds that takes in disco, synth boogie, funk and the sounds of the Caribbean, West and East Africa. The result is an album that feels potently alive, sonically exploring the globe via a concoction of sounds that takes in disco, synth boogie, funk and the sounds of the Caribbean, West and East Africa. The album radiates the feeling of a lost gem, the kind that a crate digging aficionado may find in some far flung place that ends up with a re-release. Whilst Arp Frique expresses a real fondness for such classic sounds – “honestly I wouldn’t even know how to make modern stuff, I am stuck in the 70-80-90s and I love it there” – a tired exercise in retro nostalgia this isn’t. Instead, the album feels more like a fresh take on sounds that once ignited dance floors across the world.
Beautiful album on the Motorcity Wine Recordings label dropping some genuine Motor City Funk. Step into the hazy musical minds of Glenn Echo and Daniel Meinecke on Partly Cloudy, their debut full-length on MotorCity Wine Recordings. Mr. Echo, repping the Sol Power family out of Washington, DC, reached back to his 90s downtempo, acid jazz, and golden era beat-making roots to create 11 psychedelic, breakbeat-and-space-echo-infused tracks that serve as the perfect dreamy backdrop for Mr. Meinecke’s commanding and virtuosic New Orleans gospel funk. Hot tip for those into Amp Fidler, Mark De Clive Lowe, KDJ etc.
Sun Ra’s disciple and multiface artist Jamal Moss is back to Modern Obscure Music after his debut on the label with the “The Anticipatory Organization” under The Sun God alias back in 2018. J. Moss more known as Hieroglyphic Being is back to the Barcelona based record label with a new aka, Our Souls Are In The Hands Of The Translator. The new EP is composed by two 18 minutes long freejazz-psychedelic improvisations. A trip to the dark holes of the space eternity.
Confused Machines presents the second instalment in the ongoing EnDM (electronic non-dance music) compilation series. On this collection of immersive recordings, created across multiple time zones and countries, by label members, friends and up-comers, we keep exploring the other side of Confused Machines. The side that is dedicated to different sonically aesthetics – from ambient passages to deep drone, manipulated radio transmissions, hypnotic soundscapes to obscured soundtracks, post-punk dub and kosmische. Tracks by Mise en Scene (chronica), Testkard 225 (Confused Machines), Rapha (Chateau Royal, Schrödinger’s Box), Max Schreiber (Confused Machines), Ian Martin (Bunker, Pinkman), Sacrestia Del Santissimo Sangue (charlios), Swiss arrow, OPTN (Confused Machines), Asaf Yahel, Nimrod Gershoni, Fabrikent (Confused Machines)
Lost Trax pops up at Delsin once more. It’s their second EP with new material on Delsin after their Surface Treated EP from 2019. On Mind Over Matter, Lost Trax steps in the world of old school pre-nineties jackin’ Chigaco and Detroit sounds. Four tracks filled with razor sharp 303s, bubbling FM-basses, jacking drums and offworldy emotive melodies, making this an excellent pack for the late nights.
The new era of Nu Groove continues to release exquisite house music with its latest package from Acid Jerks. An anonymous project from two of Berlin’s hottest selectors, this four-track EP demonstrates a breadth and depth of house knowledge, as Acid Jerks take the listener on a cosmic trip. The deep grooves of ‘Chocolate Factory’ kick off the package, followed by the more melodic and emotive ‘Remote Area’ with lush strings and keys. ‘Square One’ has a raw, synth-heavy sound that verges on the ominous, before the tough low end and analogue muscle of ‘The Tribute’ gives added grit to the package.
London’s Frequencies Unknown return with ‘IntaZonez Vol. 3 3’, produced once again from label operators IntaReality giving another 4 tracker that channels their recent transmissions for 2021.
In 2012 Claus Fovea self released a cassette containing 10 tracks, he was at his Swedish beginnings. 9 years later Lux Rec re-discovered his tape and it still sounded so true and relevant to them that they decided to release it on vinyl. Claus then reworked some tracks, scrap some, and made few new. Florin Buchel mixed them down and Andrea Merlini mastered them. The result is a picture frozen in time, in between now and then, the struggle, and sadness, that fragile construction of hope shattered as time goes by, like nothing ever change. It is indeed, as he sings, just the same song playing all the time. Over and over.
Mick Wills is no stranger to Frigio Records, the German Dj and producer has turned his hand to edits and remixes on previous releases and now arrives with his own 12” of edits for the volumen 4th of the label’s Ecdisis series. The source material for the two pieces on offer comes from Brazil’s Simbolo, a band formed in 1988 and still active with a career spanning more than thirty years, was a central player in South America’s EBM and Synth scene. MIck Wills has selected two tracks from the Brazilian’s back catalogue, the first being “Mind.” Industrial influences come immediately to the fore, complex drum patterns give way to a juddering groove in which guttural vocals depict a scene of hurt and pain. “Synchrono” occupies the flip. Taken from the 1995 album, In the Danger Zone, the original two minute piece is extended into a seven plus minute epic. Following on from “Mind”, “Synchrono” melts stuttering bass-lines and textured percussion with indecipherable lyrics counter-balancing heady strings. Two cuts of emotive and impacting electronics.
The Dalmata Daniel Extra series is back with another limited 10″ lathe cut record by E-bony. With DDE03 he delivers 4 strong and dark tracks in his own style, something you can immediately recognize from the heavy, rumbling basslines, spooky synth melodies and unstoppable rhythms.
XXX The Label brings for its 13th release a collaborative EP between Split Secs, an electronic music production and DJ duo from LA, and Franz Scala, the head of Slow Motion. On the A side we have two original tracks while on the AA side the artists remix each others tracks.
Balearic. Disco. Italo. House. These are the styles that forged Filippo Colonna Romano, aka Modula. The diverse musician has always drawn on a rich musical seam for inspiration. His latest album, Sounds from Montenuovo, calls upon a spread of sounds and styles. From the birdsong of the title piece, the listener finds themselves in the stripped electro-wave of “Party Crime” and “Night Warrior” with Pamina Chauveau offering impassioned vocals. The colder edges of emotions are exposed in the unsheathed funk of “The Anger” before the summer brightness and overarching warmth of “Looking At The Horizon”. Modula island hops from genre to genre, dipping into one sound before diving deep into another style to resurface with audio pearls. Tribal tones and melodic bursts come together in the exotic “Malicumbà”, a track which anticipates the pure synthesizer joy of the instrumental version of “Looking At The Horizon”. A vivid collection of imaginings from Romano’s studio, sounds that arrive via the clear waters of the Caribbean and the cinematic echoes of the 1980s. A voyage from beginning to end.
Seminal early 80’s HI-NRG / Synth disco emanating from the gay clubs, bath houses and discotheques of San Francisco. A truly original and groundbreaking sound and style helmed by studio genius Patrick Cowley. Heavily informed by sonically charged science fiction fantasy and the darkest corners of nightlife, ‘Mind Warp’ is a cornerstone of electronic music that still astonishes today. Originally released on Cowley’s own Megatone imprint in 1982 the album marks a definitive change in direction of post-disco dance music, undoubtedly inspired by European artists such as Kraftwerk, Moroder, Yello and more. A huge influence on what was to come through in later years via house and techno music, ‘Mind Warp’ is a bonafide classic and every single self respecting music lover or DJs home should have a copy. Celebrate 40 years of the label with this unmissable reissue package beautifully presented on wondrous coloured vinyl by your friends over at Unidisc.
Originally released in 1982 on Cinofilm Produzione, Francesco Strippoli aka Armonics discovered the ‘Radio’ 7″ by pure chance last year near his home in Bari. It was in Vito Lisco’s basement, who written and produced this track together with Renzo Maria La Costa back in the 80’s. They polished up the original track and on top re-recorded the vocal parts, added some guitar riffs and remixed everything together for a modern take on this eccentric italo production by Evolution (L&L).
Worthy italo re-issue of this early Roberto Ferrante’s project. Roberto started his career being part of various electronic music groups in Naples around the early 80s. In 1985 “Faces” came out, a simple but direct and honest song with an irresistible rhythm and lyrics that tends to move away from that typical dark sound in other Italo-Disco songs of that era. This song is a triumph for synthesizers and electronic drums as it’s fully electronic, something still a rarity in those days. The beautiful melody and spiritual essence of ”Faces” represent the revolution of a new beginning of the Italian pop of the 80s with a perfect arrangement by Roberto Ferrante, a bouncing bassline, and strong and clear vocal. The sweet and sensual voice, full of personality and charm is by Clio (Maria Chiara Perugini).
Traditions 19 featuring underground Danish artist Brian Anthony aka Aerphax. Aerphax has been making eclectic electronic music since early 90s. It includes a double EP of forward-thinking electronic music with a range that goes from Electro and Italo to IDM or Acid.
The sixth album by Emile Facey under the Plant43 moniker and the seventh release on his Plant43 Recordings imprint since its inception in 2020, Sublunar Tides is his most expressive and stylistically wide ranging to date. Over 52 minutes and nine tracks the album whisks the listener effortlessly from fast-paced dancefloor electro through the slowmotion cloud-soaring of Concrete Breakers, the intricate experimental synths of Perfect Ruin to the lilting, songlike tones of the emotional album closer ‘Tides Align’. Co-founder of London’s Bleep43 crew, Facey has been promoting underground electro and techno since the 90’s.
In 2018, unknown artist James Infiltrate dropped an album of smart electro tunes that get everyone talking. It turned out to be an alias of James Burnham aka Burnski aka the Constant Sound boss aka Instinct Now some of the cuts from that album get choice remixes – Alex Jann flips ‘Flash’ into a caustic electro banger with bright synths and twisted bass. Stojche goes for a lurching, loopy, scintillating and loopy remix of ‘Isolate’ that takes you to the stars and the flip offers up an acid laced electro cruiser from Sound Synthesis and Relpek mix of ‘Reconnect’ that is melodic and mysterious.
The Hipodrome Of Music 